Kelocity.com

A runner with an appetite for adventure!

Reading and Walking September 22, 2013

Filed under: Baby,library,Los Angeles — Kelocity @ 4:53 am
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One of my favorite places in the whole world is inside the walls of a great library. Actually any library. I don’t know what it is, but libraries feel magical to me. The possibilities, the stories, the idea of it being community space that’s free to the general public. I love it. The LA library gives library cards to children as soon as they can sign their own name… you better believe the day Adele does that for the first time, we’ll be at our local branch signing up for a lifetime of books! 
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Last weekend, we drove into the depths of downtown to visit the Central Library. It’s a huge library with a big Children’s room. (We visited there last year when Adele was 2 months old!) Truthfully, I’ve found better children’s rooms at the smaller branches around LA… The central branch doesn’t have puzzles, games and comfy corners to read in, but it does have lots and lots of books… and a puppet show theater! We played in the library for an hour waiting for the Puppet Show to start (it was a Pirate theme this week!) But I think all that book reading beforehand tired Adele out and we didn’t make it to see the actual show. I’ll time it better next time.

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But we still had a blast pulling books from the shelves, finding pictures of “Bananas” and “Doggies” within the pages, and walking. Lots of walking.

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A Morning at the Americana September 21, 2013

Filed under: Baby,Los Angeles — Kelocity @ 4:23 am
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Last week, while Grandma was in town, we did a few fun things together. One day, we had brunch at Foxy’s in Glendale (hands down, best breakfast joint around). Then we headed across the street to the playground at the Americana. It was a pretty walk checking out the fountain and the shops…. but then when we got to the playground…. we noticed it was GONE! Did we imagine it? Didn’t there used to be a playground in the center court of the Americana? Are we crazy? Oh well. Instead, we snapped some pictures and took in the scene.IMG_0532
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Adele was watching the dancing fountain in these photos! Wait til she sees the Bellagio in Vegas next month!
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One of the best perks about that outdoor mall is that they have a cute kids area for changing/entertaining little ones. I thought it would be a great introduction to chalk!
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Adele has a requirement that anything she holds has to come in ‘twos’.  One for each hand, obviously.
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I think my sidewalk chalk days are still a little ways off (I’m already excited for Easter when she’ll probably find some chalk in her easter basket!), but she had fun regardless.
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This outfit makes her look so grown up!
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Since Adele was born, we find ourselves at the Americana often. For a while we were going once or twice a week! It’s fun, new, convenient… and there’s a TARGET (cue the sound of clouds parting and the sound of god chiming through!) And we have a trick for finding the best parking spot in the whole mall…. the key to scoring this prime spot means arriving at the mall before it opens…. which we’ve been known to do on a few occasions. Hey, you can always kill time at Foxy’s across the street! Win, Win!
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The Orange Shirt: Then and Now September 20, 2013

Filed under: Baby — Kelocity @ 2:20 pm

Dad and Adele at 1 week old…

Dad and Adele at Adele 67 weeks old…
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Crayons are not for Chewing September 18, 2013

Filed under: Baby — Kelocity @ 4:58 am

….but Adele still thinks they are. I’m trying to show her the wonder of coloring with crayons, but she much prefers to put them in a cup and dump them out again… and chew on them of course. I already have coloring books waiting on the shelf for her big Picasso debut. It’s happening soon, I can feel it.
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Adele: 15 Months September 17, 2013

Filed under: Baby — Kelocity @ 4:41 am

I looooooove this age. Something happened about a week before Adele turned 15 months and her personality and her mental and physical capabilities exploded! She’s a walking/talking/thinking machine now and I just can’t seem to get enough of her lately. Everything is changing so quickly with her now that it’s hard to really keep track of.  But here’s the 15 month roundup!

Weight: 19 pounds, 15 ounces (still haven’t hit the 20lb mark yet!) – 25th percentile
Height: 28.5″ (grew an inch since June) – 25th percentile
Shoe Size: Three
Clothing Size: 18 Months
Teeth: Sort of lost track (oops). And she won’t let me really look inside her mouth, but she’s got three molars, the middle four on the top and bottom, and a few randoms in between.

The newest and most obvious change this month is that she’s (finally) walking! She seems to be the type of person who really wants to be sure she master something before she attempts it. She waited til she was nice and ready. About 2 weeks ago, she started walking across rooms and last week we saw a shift and now she definitely prefers walking over crawling. She is now putting the “toddle” in “toddler”. it’s so cute!
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And it’s true what they say… once they start walking… you’re in trouble…I have about an inch before I have to start seriously worrying she’ll walk right out the front door!

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Her hair is finally starting to grow too! It’s so cute and soft. She won’t let me but bows or headbands in it, but I like it just the way it is. There’s a hint of a curl there too!
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She’s masted the “sign” for more now. It’s been SO helpful to be able to understand what she wants. She uses it correctly and it makes me smile every time.
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But even better than that, she’s TALKING now! Real words! All day long. Her current list of words includes: woof woof, quack quack, muah (kiss), more, water, up, down, doggy, ball, banana, uh-oh, milk, mama and dada. She can use all of those in context and point them out in pictures.

Her comprehension is through the roof all of a sudden too. We can ask her to bring a specific item to us and she’ll come back with the correct one. She can follow simple cues like ‘sit down, stand up, come here, go get the ball, where’s your milk?’ and more. We sort of giggle when she follows directions because it’s crazy she understands so much.

Because she spent 2 weeks in the East Coast time zone this month, her sleep has been a little out of whack since she got back. She’s been going to bed between 7:30p-8p and waking up at 4am!!!!!! ahhhhhh!!!! I haven’t done that so consistently in over a year and I’m not liking it! It could either be the time difference, the developmental leaps this month, or the fact that her normal routine was disrupted. Probably all of the above. But this early wake up call has led to some pretty epic 4 hour naps this week. I’m hopeful she’ll go back to sleeping past sunrise soon (right?!)

And shhe’s now suchhhh a light sleeper. Lately she’ll hear a pin drop and wake up. I’ve resorted to being ‘that mom’ with the “shhhhh baby’s sleeping” police officer mentality.  Don’t really want to re-introduce white noise (we stopped that at 5 months) but any other suggestions?

She’s still drinking around 15oz of organic whole milk a day. I don’t stress too much about it because she eats a lot of cheese and yogurt each day as well.

She also drinks a ton of water throughout the day now too. We use this cup for milk and this cup for water. <—- does anyone have have any thoughts on cups? Is that milk cup still ok at this age? or should I be using straws exclusively now? I feel a little lost here. It’s working for us now, but just want to make sure i’m doing the ‘right’ thing. 

She’s back to eating like a champ again (after a month of being picky and not having much of an appetite). We’re experimenting with offering less snacks throughout the day, and we notice she throws less food on the floor when we do that. Makes sense I guess.

Favorite foods include: string cheese, eggs, raisins, tomatoes, strawberries, bananas, corn on the cob, pasta, peas, cooked carrots, broccoli, pickles (YES!), blueberries, waffles and bread.

Her least favorite foods are basically anything with fibers or is difficult to chew: chicken, cucumbers, melon, and grapes with skin, anything with a ‘skin’ really. She’s not a big meat eater which is funny because even though I don’t each much meat, I always offer it to her anyways… guess it really does make you wonder ‘nature vs nurture’.

15 months has been the best one yet. Wish I could freeze time and savor this stage forever.

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As always, thanks for readin